Marvels

Marvels

I hate how my expectations and excitement for a new Marvel movie have been so drastically reduced in the last couple of years.  In any case, Marvels was fine, definitely middle tier.  Let’s break it down:

What I liked:

• Iman Vellani.  She nailed it in Ms Marvel, she nails it here.  Her enthusiasm and love for the role shines through in her performance, and she makes Kamala Khan someone I want to keep seeing more of in the MCU.

• Kamala’s family.  Love seeing Mohan Kapur, Zenobia Shroff, and Saagar Shaikh as the dad, mom, and brother.  They ground the whole film in a loving, hilarious way.

• Kate Bishop is back!  Can’t wait to see them together in a film.  

• Amusing use of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

• The musical scene.  I’m not sure if I liked it, but I love that director Nia DaCosta went for it.  Same with the cat escape scene.  It didn’t completely work for me, but I appreciate the effort to do something different.

• The training montage and camaraderie between the three protagonists was nicely done.

• The body switching made for some fun fight scenes.  

• Always good to see Tessa Thompson.  I’m entirely convinced that Valkyrie and Carol Danvers have hooked up in the past.  

What I didn’t like:

• Dar-Benn is the next in a long line of lame, forgettable MCU villains.  Zawe Ashton doesn’t help with a flat, nuance-less performance.  And it’s not a good sign when the whole plot of using the jump gates to suck up planetary resources is a straight up copy of Mega Maid from Spaceballs.  

• Plot holes left and right.  Why couldn’t Dar-Benn use both bangles, while Kamala had no problem?  Why wasn’t Kamala wearing both bangles in the epilogue?  Many more, but I don’t care enough to list them out.

• Brie Larson isn’t bad as Carol Danvers, but my comments from the first movie still stand.

• I would have loved the X-Men stinger if it didn’t feel like the payoff isn’t at least five years away.  

Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as Quantumania.  

Regret watching: No

Would watch again: Yes

Would buy on DVD: No

Rating: Nice

1. Avengers: Endgame

2. Captain America: Civil War

3. Captain America: Winter Soldier

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home

5. Avengers: Infinity War

6. Shang-Chi

7. Ant Man/Wasp

8. Avengers

9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

10. Captain America: First Avenger

11. Spider-Man: Homecoming

12. Avengers: Age of Ultron

13. Thor: Love and Thunder

14. Black Panther

15. Thor: Ragnarok

16. Iron Man 2

17. Iron Man 1

18. Ant-Man

19. Marvels

20. Captain Marvel

21. Black Widow

22. Iron Man 3

23. Doctor Strange

24. Spider-Man: Far From Home

25. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

26. Guardians 3

27. Guardians 1

28. Guardians 2

29. Eternals

30. Thor

31. Thor 2

32. Hulk

33. Ant-Man/Wasp: Quantumania